Gone with the Wind takes place in the southern United States of America in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) that followed the war. The novel unfolds against the backdrop of rebellion wherein seven southern states, Georgia among them, have seceded from the United States (the "Union") to form the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy"). A territorial dispute over states’ rights has arisen involving Negro slaves that were the source of manual labor on cotton and tobacco plantations throughout the South. The story opens in April 1861 at the "Tara" plantation, which is owned by a wealthy Irish immigrant family, the O’Haras. The reader is told, Scarlett O’Hara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Gerald and Ellen O’Hara, "was not beautiful, but...," she had an effect on men, especially when she took notice of them. It is the day before the men are called to war, Fort Sumter having been fired on already.
There are brief but vivid descriptions of the South as it began and grew, with backgrounds of the main characters: the stylish and highbrow French, the gentlemanly English, the forced-to-flee and looked-down-upon Irish. Miss Scarlett is informed one of her many beaux, Ashley Wilkes, is soon to be engaged to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. She is stricken at heart. The following day at the Wilkes’s barbecue at "Twelve Oaks," Scarlett informs Ashley she loves him and Ashley admits he loves her too. However, he knows he wouldn’t be happily married to Scarlett because of their personality differences. Scarlett loses her temper, calls Ashley names, and he silently takes it.
Then Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, a man who has a reputation as a rogue. Rhett had been alone in the library where the dialogue between Scarlett and Ashley took place, unseen by the couple when they entered. Rhett applauds Scarlett for the unladylike spirit she displayed with Ashley. Infuriated and humiliated, Scarlett tells Rhett he is not fit to wipe Ashley’s boots.
Immediately after, she finds out that war has been declared and the men are going to enlist. Seeking revenge for being jilted by Ashley, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie’s brother, Charles Hamilton. They marry two weeks later. However, Charles dies two months before the war begins. Scarlett is pregnant with her first child. A widow at merely sixteen, she gives birth to a boy, Wade Hampton Hamilton, named after his father’s general. As a widow, she is bound by tradition, having to wear black and not allowed to speak to young men. Scarlett goes into a depression over all the restrictions placed upon her.
Melanie, who is living in Atlanta with Aunt Pittypat, invites Scarlett to live with them. In Atlanta, Scarlett’s spirits are revived, and she is soon busy with hospital work and sewing circles for the Confederate army. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler once again at a dance for the Confederacy. Although Rhett believes the war is a lost cause, he is blockading for the profit in it. The men must bid for a dance with a lady and Rhett bids well over seven times as much as any other man for a dance with Scarlett. Everyone at the dance is shocked that Rhett would bid for Scarlett, the widow still dressed in black. Melanie smooths things over by coming to Rhett’s defense because he is generously supporting the Confederate cause that her husband, Ashley, is fighting for.
At Christmas (1863), Ashley has been granted a furlough from the army and returns to Atlanta to be with Melanie. The war is going badly for the Confederacy. Atlanta descends into a desperate state while hundreds of wounded Confederate soldiers lay dying or dead in the city. Melanie is pregnant and in labor with no doctor available, only inexperienced Scarlett to assist. Prissy, a young Negro servant girl, cries out in despair and fear, "The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!" In the chaos, Scarlett, left to fend for herself, longingly cries for the comfort and safety of her mother and Tara. The tattered Confederate army sets flame to Atlanta as they abandon it to the Union army. The last remnants of the old South are "gone with the wind." The book continues with Scarlett working to rebuild life at Tara, and further developing a relationship with Rhett Butler while still dealing with her love for Ashley.